WINSTON-SALEM — Strong performances in individual and relay events propelled the Richmond Senior High School girls’ indoor track and field team to third place in the Sandhills Athletic Conference championship Tuesday.
Two relay teams along with eight individual point scorers recorded 75 points for Richmond while competing at the JDL Fast Track.
The Lady Raiders trailed only Pinecrest High School (196 points) and Union Pines High School (171 points).
Trailing Richmond were Lee County (37 points), Hoke County (18 points), Scotland (12 points) and Southern Lee (8 points).
Sophomore Ka’mora Watkins registered a team-high 18 points across four events. Junior distance runner Mariana Mendez added 14 points with a pair of top-three finishes.
Other contributors were Quanna Bostic (nine points), Anayjah Dumas (six points), Amariah Gibson, Sharonda Henderson, Fallon Little and Kymaria Wall (all with four points).
Richmond’s 4×200 and 4×800-meter relay teams both finished third for the final combined 12 points.
Mendez had the best overall finish for the team, placing second in the 1,000-meter run (3:33.85) for eight points.
She followed that with the only individual third-place finish for Richmond in the 1,600-meter run (6:16.91), which added six more points.
Gibson, Wall, Brooklyn Jemison and Taylor Newton combined for six points with a third-place time of 1:55.47 in the 4×200-meter relay.
Also taking third in the 4×800 relay were Jakayla Bostick, Dayana Franco, Anahi Gomez and Samya Patterson (14:38.39).
Watkins picked up 15 of her 18 points with three fourth-place finishes. She earned five points for each event.
Setting a new personal record in the 55-meter dash, Watkins clocked in at 7.88 seconds. Also taking fourth in the high jump and triple jump, Watkins cleared the bar at 4 feet, 6 inches and jumped to 31 feet, 6.75 inches.
Earning her final three points in the long jump, Watkins placed sixth overall with a distance of 12 feet, 10 inches.
Bostic scored her nine points between the long jump and 55-meter hurdles. She was fourth in the long jump (13 feet, 6.25 inches) for five points and notched four points with a fifth-place time and personal record of 10.80 seconds.
Dumas had two sixth-place finishes for three points each in the 55-meter hurdles (10.84 seconds) and the triple jump (27 feet, 3.75 inches).
Wall and Henderson both registered their four points with a fifth-place finish and set a new PR. In the 500-meter dash, Wall ran a 1:30.62 and Henderson cleared the bar at 4 feet, 4 inches in the high jump.
Gibson had a sixth-place finish in the 55-meter (7.94 seconds) and an eighth-place time of 49.89 seconds in the 300-meter dash.
Rounding out Richmond’s efforts was Little, who was seventh in the 55-meter hurdles (10.91 seconds) and the triple jump (26 feet, 9.25 inches), which was a new PR.
The Lady Raiders and head coach Reggie Miller will compete Saturday, Jan. 25, at 9 a.m. at Union Pines.
